My favorite Ryder Cup memory: Mark O'Meara

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Sep. 2, 2010

We asked several Champions Tour players to share their favorite memories from the Ryder Cup. What did Mark O'Meara say was his favorite moment?

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It's quite an honor obviously to qualify and play on a Ryder Cup team. A lot of guys who had very nice careers never played on a Ryder Cup team. I know how much it means to the players to make the team. I know the amount of pressure after playing on five Ryder Cup teams -- two winning teams, two losing teams and one tying team -- what it means to play on a team to do the very best you can. It's the ultimate pressure. It's probably more pressure in a Ryder Cup then there is in most major championships because it's such a unique format where the players are kind of outside of their own self to where it's all about the team. Yeah, individually you're trying to play well but you don't want to let your teammates down which adds to the amount of pressure that's created at a Ryder Cup.

There were a couple of moments that stand out for me. The year we played at Kiawah when Dave Stockton was the captain (1991). You know it came down to the last putt. I don't know if any match-play format over a three-day period of time with all the great players we had on both teams that it came down basically to a 6-7-foot putt on the 18th green. If Bernhard Langer made it the Europeans won and if he missed it the U.S. won. That's what happened and unfortunately Bernhard missed and we won but I just wouldn't want anyone to be in that position. And credit to Bernhard, he came back and won the next week in Germany on the European Tour. The other thing that stands out was at Brookline when Ben Crenshaw was the captain. We were way behind and no one gave us a chance and we had a miracle Sunday and pulled it out and won. It's always been very, very close and Europe has really been playing tremendous golf over the last five or six Ryder Cups and they've kind of dominated the Ryder Cup even though the U.S. won at Valhalla. We've got our hands full this year at Celtic Manor because they know the course. I think they're very strong, very deep. I think Corey (Pavin) will do a very good job with the U.S. team and they can give them a good match and they can come out on top, but it's going to be a tough battle.

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